


I Choose You

by telliefan (captainamergirl)



Category: General Hospital
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-19
Updated: 2016-05-19
Packaged: 2018-06-09 09:49:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6901003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainamergirl/pseuds/telliefan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A re-write of that eventful summer in 2006. LL2, a three-part story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Part 1 of 3**  
  
Elizabeth Spencer hurriedly climbed out of the car and forcefully yanked the keys out of the ignition as she hurried up the front steps of the Quartermaine mansion. She was frazzled as all get out but she needed to see her best friend, seek guidance, and maybe find a warm shoulder to cry on. She had seen something so terrible tonight and had then almost done something even more terrible. She felt Emily was the only one she could talk to about it.   
  
She pounded on the front door, loudly, frantically, as tears burbled in her eyes like so many pinpricks to match the ones stabbing at her heart. She had cried for hours now and that wasn’t going to stop. She cried out of pain for what she had lost tonight, how she felt she had lost the only man she truly ever loved, and cried in shame that she had about thrown herself on another man to get through the darkest part of the night. Her heart was bleeding, it ached so much that it was physically constricting her breathing.  
  
She kept pounding on the door, nearly dropping to the stoop she felt so disgusted and sick and worst of all, full of shame and regret about her own actions. The door finally opened and she looked up in the dark, way up, to see Alice Gunderson, the family maid standing there. Alice immediately reached a steadying hand out to Elizabeth. “Missus Spencer, what’s wrong?”  
  
“Em- Emily,” Elizabeth choked out. “I need to talk to her please.”  
  
“She’s up in her room. Is there anything I -” Elizabeth didn’t hear the rest as she pounded up the long staircase and practically sprinted down the hall to Emily’s room. She found the good doctor hunched over some type of medical manual, reading by candlelight. The blackout had apparently hit all over town.   
  
“Em,” she half-whispered, half-cried.   
  
Emily’s head immediately snapped up upon hearing Elizabeth’s plaintive voice and she jumped out of her chair. “Elizabeth, what’s wrong?“ Emily asked, in just two brisk strides closing the gap between her and her friend and pulling the grieving woman into her thin but sturdy arms.  
  
“Is it Cam?” Emily asked, leading Elizabeth over to the desk chair she had just vacated herself.   
  
Elizabeth shook her head as Emily forcibly pushed her shaking form down into the chair. “No- ooo …” She choked out through her clenched throat.   
  
“Okay let me get you a glass of water and then tell me what happened,” Emily said, squeezing Elizabeth’s shoulder comfortingly.   
  
“I don’t want a damn drink of water, Em,” Elizabeth’s voice came out harsher than she had intended.   
  
“Okay,” Emily said with a nod, dropping to her knees in front of Elizabeth and taking her hands in her own small ones. “Then is it Lucky?”  
  
Elizabeth nodded mutely and Emily’s eyes widened. “Ohmigod is he hurt? Did he relapse …?”  
  
Elizabeth wiped her teary face as Emily held out a tissue to her. “You could call it that …”  
  
“Elizabeth, talk to me! Be straight with me and tell me how I can help.”  
  
Liz nodded. “Tonight I found Lucky with Maxie Jones …” Her voice was low although the tears behind her words, the near-hysteria, were evident.  
  
“Found him?” Emily asked, at first not understanding what she meant. Then the realization seemed to dawn on her. “Oh you mean …”  
  
Liz nodded. “Yes. He’s been sleeping with her for awhile now. I can’t believe I didn’t know …”  
  
“Ohmigod. No wonder you’re so upset …” Emily said, leaning over and holding her best friend close for the longest time before she gently pulled away and cupped Elizabeth’s chin in the palm of her hand. “What are you going to do?”  
  
Liz’s shoulders heaved. “I don’t know. I hoped you could tell me what to do.”  
  
“Gee, Liz …”  
  
“Emily, please, my life and my son’s life and Lucky’s even, are hanging in the balance. And that’s not even the worst part …”  
  
Emily sighed. “I’m afraid to ask …”  
  
“I went over to Jason’s and we …”  
  
Emily stared at Elizabeth in horror. “No, Liz, no. Please don’t say that you and Jason - that you and him didn’t …”  
  
Elizabeth shook her head, holding up a shaky hand. “No. No we didn’t. But we almost did and I wanted to for a moment there. I really wanted to. Not because I’m in love with him or anything. Just because I wanted to forget for a moment seeing my husband in another woman’s arms. He kissed me a few times and we were heading over to the sofa and as soon as he was setting me down on it, I started picturing Cameron’s face. Thinking how would react if both of his parents abandoned him during a blackout. How he must be so scared but I just couldn’t go home right then so I came here. I was determined to go through with it anyway though until I started picturing Lucky. As Jason went to remove my shirt, I kind of panicked and pushed him back really hard, he even stumbled back a little, and I just ran like hell out of there, never looking back once till I got here.”  
  
“Liz, you’ve had a hell of a night, haven’t you?” Emily said, putting her hand on Liz’s shoulders again. “If you came here to ask me what to do I can’t tell you that, Elizabeth. You have to decide although you have to ask yourself this question …”  
  
“What is it?”  
  
“Do you love Lucky? Do you still love him with all your heart and soul?”   
  
Elizabeth nodded. “Of course I do, but …”  
  
“Then there are no buts, Elizabeth. Unless Lucky tells you straight out that he doesn’t want you anymore - and I sincerely doubt that he would - then you need to lay it all on the line and decide where you go - the both of you decide together.”  
  
“But you and Nikolas …” Liz said. “I mean, you two …”  
  
“Maybe we weren’t meant to be, Elizabeth, but I tell you if Nikolas still looked at me the way Lucky looks at you, I would take him back with open arms …”  
  
“Its not that easy …”  
  
“I know. I know,” Emily agreed with a nod of her head. “But just don’t give up. Not until you’ve heard Lucky’s side of the story.”  
  
Elizabeth nodded. “I am so afraid to go back to the house. I am afraid when I look into Lucky’s eyes; he’s going to know what I did with Jason.”  
  
“Nearly did, Elizabeth. Nearly.”  
  
“Don’t make excuses for me, Em,” Elizabeth said, a tad huffily. “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”  
  
“Of course they don’t but you stopped yourself because you thought of Lucky. That has to mean something. In fact, it means a lot.” Emily grabbed another tissue off her desk and dabbed at Elizabeth’s tear-streaked face. “Go talk to him, Elizabeth. If you need me to drive you …”  
  
“No, no, its okay I don’t.” Elizabeth said. “I will talk to him. It will be hard but it has to be done.” She tried to sound resolute though she felt just the opposite. How was she supposed to stand there and look at the man who had stolen her heart so long ago and then just broke it and not want to run the opposite direction? But she was determined to at least hear Lucky out. If only for Cam’s sake.   
  
Elizabeth sighed and looked at Emily for a long moment as she began to gather up her purse and keys. “Thanks, Em, you always know the right thing to say.”  
  
“Well you’re not going to like what I have to say now …”  
  
“What do you mean?” Elizabeth asked.  
  
“Be honest with him, Liz. Tell him about Jason. Don’t keep secrets. In the end, they will destroy not only your marriage but yourself as well.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 2 of 3**  
  
As she had expected they would be, the lights in the small apartment were off as she pulled into the driveway. Despite Lucky’s belief otherwise, the size of their apartment had never concerned Elizabeth in the least because it had felt like a home should have felt - warm and happy and full of love. Who knew that all that could be taken away in the span of one horrible night?  
  
She slowly climbed out of her car and approached the front door. As she had equally hoped for and dreaded at the same time, the door was unlocked. Lucky was home. She was going to have to face him now after all. It likely wasn’t going to be pretty, especially with the way she was feeling now - so raw and angry and full of shame all at the same time.  
  
She pushed back the door and quietly entered the dark room. Her eyes fell on four lit candles in the center of the makeshift coffee table and she almost smiled in spite of herself. Lucky had always insisted on being prepared with extra supplies in events like a blackout or some natural disaster, though neither of them could have prepared for things to end up the way they had. Still it humbled her a bit to remember that Lucky always kept the fridge overstocked and the cabinets near overflowing even in a financial crisis because he didn’t want her and Cam to miss out on anything.   
  
Elizabeth was lost in her own thoughts until she heard his familiar footfalls approaching and felt his warm hand come to rest on her arm. “Hey,” he said. “I’m glad you’re safe. I was worried when you ran out of there tonight.” His voice was low and full of sadness and shame. They matched the ache in her heart.  
  
She then noticed the pill vial in his hand and she closed her eyes for a moment, willing it all away. The horrible memories of tonight, the thought of Lucky needing to turn to drugs to satisfy something in himself she couldn’t have given him, and even the good memories like snuggling in each others arms after they had put Cam to bed … She wanted to forget it all because it hurt too damn much.   
  
Lucky must have noticed the expression on her face because he said, “Its empty. I flushed the rest of the pills just before you came in.” He shook it purposefully and it made no sound.  
  
Elizabeth simply nodded and shaking the hand on her arm loose, walked across the room and set her purse and keys down on the table. She didn’t know what to say for the longest time and apparently neither did he, which was evident by his silence. How did one broach the subject of a drug-addled extramarital affair?  
  
Almost to her relief, he spoke first. “Cam’s okay. He’s still at Audrey’s. I went over there on the way back here to pick him up but Audrey said he was asleep and I let him stay that way, thinking you and I should talk. At least I try to …”  
  
Elizabeth nodded again and slid down into a high-backed chair next to the makeshift coffee table. She watched as Lucky slowly, hesitantly, walked towards her. She held up a shaky hand. “Don’t, please,” she said. She didn’t know what she was saying “don’t” to exactly, his physical closeness or something else.  
  
Lucky just sighed and scooted over to drop down onto the sofa. He settled his head in the palms of his hand. Then looking up through the near-darkness, he met her eyes with his, his gaze so intense she had to look away first. “I am so sorry, Elizabeth,” he started. “If I could take it all back … Not just tonight but the whole affair …”  
  
“I wish we could make it go away that easily,” Liz agreed. “But its not that easy and you know it.”  
  
“But there’s still a chance for us, right?” Lucky said, hope tingeing his hoarse voice. “You are at least willing to give me a chance to make things right again …?”  
  
“Lucky, how can we make things right again? You were sleeping with another woman! Behind my back. Doing it apparently so she would steal drugs for you.”  
  
“I know, god, I do know that. I just want another chance. I love you, Liz. I love Cam. I love our life together. I know I screwed up horribly, I know I did, and I know I can’t ever really make it completely go away, but god help me, I may not deserve you two in my life, but I don’t want to lose you either. I never want to be apart from the two of you ever again.”  
  
Elizabeth sighed softly as more tears streaked down her face. “Maybe you’ll change your mind when you hear what I have to say.”  
  
“What do you mean?”  
  
“Something … something happened tonight after I left you at Kelly’s …”  
  
He didn’t say anything, obviously a bit confused as he waited for her to continue.   
  
She took a long, slow breath to steady the hammering in her chest. This seemed to be the hardest part of all.  
  
“I went to see Jason,” she finally said.  
  
“Jason Morgan?” His asked, his voice taking on a harsher edge to it.  
  
“Yes. I went -- I went over to see him because I needed someone to talk to. I needed someone to comfort me at that moment and tell me everything was going to be okay. I wanted him to make me believe it …”  
  
“Oh please god, Elizabeth, please don’t tell me -”  
  
Elizabeth held up a very shaky hand. “Just let me talk, okay?”  
  
Lucky nodded although even in the dark she could tell that he was crying. Thinking the worst, no doubt. And she couldn’t blame him. He had worried all along that she was going to leave him for another man and she almost had - if only for the night.  
  
“We talked,” Elizabeth went on. “For a very long time. He had some serious stuff going on with his own girlfriend, Sam McCall. He was drunk almost, so I started to join him in drinking some beer … I just wanted to forget everything so badly. Forget seeing you in Maxie’s arms. I wanted to be comforted. And then-”  
  
“Please no more, Elizabeth, please,” Lucky said with a strangled cry. “I know you’re angry and you have every right to be but this … This is just too hard to hear.”  
  
“And you think it was any easier seeing you with Maxie?” Elizabeth demanded, suddenly wanting to punch him, or at least something, really slug it out until she felt normal again, if that were even possible at this point.  
  
But she simply watched him in the near darkness and then said softly, “We started kissing and he unpinned my hair and …”  
  
Lucky let out another cry and jumping up from the couch, stomped over to the window. “Why are you telling me all this? Are you trying to punish me for sleeping with Maxie?”  
  
Elizabeth continued on, almost as if she hadn‘t heard him. “We kissed and I knew we were about to have sex. I knew he wanted to, he wanted to forget a painful memory as well. I thought I did too for a moment there. But then I started thinking about Cameron and how he needed us. Both of us. And then I thought of you and how much … I needed you too. So I made the very conscious decision to get the heck out of there before we both did something we regretted.”  
  
Lucky still faced the window but said, “Why did you tell me this?”  
  
Elizabeth, ever so slowly, walked over to the man she had loved with all her heart for seemingly so long and moved around in front of him so they were looking at each other. Finally she took his large, work-calloused hands in her own and said, “Don’t you see, Lucky? I chose Cameron over Jason. I chose us over some dumb moment of revenge or grief. I chose … you …”  
  
Tears rolled down Lucky’s cheeks as he held out his arms to her. She instinctively slipped into them, and they stood there for seemingly hours, pressed together in the darkroom, their heart’s hammering against each other’s as the words _“I chose you”_ hung heavy and meaningful in the air around them …


	3. Chapter 3

**Part 3 of 3**  
  
 ** _A year later …_**  
  
“I can’t believe they are remarrying,” Carly Jacks griped as they walked into St. Luke’s chapel. “I mean, after all she pulled on him …”  
  
“Shh!” Her husband, Jax, whispered hoarsely. “Everyone can hear you.”  
  
“I’m just trying to figure out why you dragged me here.”  
  
“Well, if you don’t like it, go home. You have no right to ruin their special day. I am here to support the bride at the very least. She’s an old friend.”  
  
“And I’m here to support the groom, I guess,” Carly said. “I just wish he knew what he was getting himself into.”  
  
“I wonder if she knows what she’s getting herself into,” Jax returned and grinned at his wife as they slipped into a pew near the back.  
  
XoXoXo  
  
“Are you sure we should have come?” Sam McCall asked as she grasped Jason Morgan’s hand with one of her own. On her free hand a new diamond engagement ring sparkled. “I mean, most everyone here hates me.”  
  
Jason slipped his arm around her waist. “That’s not true. Still, we can leave if you want to.”  
  
Sam shook her head, a lock of her dark hair falling over her eyes which he pushed back with the pad of his warm thumb. “No. I’m here to support them. They deserve our support after all they went through to be together,” she said.  
  
Jason nodded and discreetly kissed Sam’s free hand before they too slipped into the church, taking a seat in the back near the Jackses. Carly naturally rolled her eyes at Sam and Sam glared back. It seemed some things never changed, but there was a bit of comfort in that.   
  
XoXoXo  
  
“So are we ready to get this show on the road?” Patrick Drake asked, walking into the throng of the gathered wedding party standing in the vestibule at the back of the church. “I haven’t got all day and Robin’s about to pop any minute …”  
  
“Hey!” His very pregnant fiancé Robin snapped, punching his arm lightly. “I’m hormonal and if we weren’t in a church right now …” she teased.  
  
They started bickering and Elizabeth couldn’t help but roll her eyes. She loved Patrick and Robin like they were her own siblings but listening to their quibbling was a little much to take on this special day when so many of their friends and family had gathered for this very special occasion. A lot of people had doubted this day would ever come around again but it had and now the healing was beginning for real.  
  
Elizabeth locked eyes with Lucky standing at the end of the aisle with Nikolas and grinned. She mouthed the words, “love you” to him and blew him a little kiss. He mocked catching it in his hand and mouthed that he loved her back.   
  
“Oh, god, Liz, you and Lucky are like teenagers,” Kelly Lee said, wrapping her arm around her escort, Dr. Leo Julian, almost in a possessive manner.  
  
“It makes sense, though,” Emily spoke up as she shifted her train a bit. “Liz and Lucky fell in love as teenagers … He was her protector and she was his lifeline.” She turned to Elizabeth. “You two are next to the altar to renew your vows. I can just feel it.”  
  
Elizabeth smiled and looked at Lucky as everyone fell into place ahead of the bride. “I hope so,” she murmured.  
  
XoXoXo  
  
“Lovers, take the floor,” Dillon Quartermaine said. He was DJ'ing the reception as Georgie, his wife, looked on with pride and cupped her own full belly. She, like her cousin Robin, was much too uncomfortable and bloated to dance so they sat on the sidelines and gabbed while Patrick brought them soda after soda.  
  
Carly and Jax took the floor first. Carly looked around triumphantly, almost as if to say, “I am still the star attraction in this room.” Leo and Kelly followed their lead. Kelly was six sheets to the wind, almost drunk on her ass, but Leo didn’t seem to mind in the least. In fact, he was laughing and having a good time in a way no one had ever seen the stiff doctor do before.  
  
Lainey Winters and Sonny Corinthos took the floor next and Elizabeth couldn’t help but notice that there was a gleam, a twinkle, in his eye just for Lainey that hadn’t been there before. It had surprised everyone when he showed up at the church because he was a rival of the groom and an ex-lover of the bride. But it really didn’t matter because the Metro Court was full of ex-lovers and rivals and enemies tonight and yet no one seemed to care. There was a feeling of peace and calm for once in Port Charles. Even Ric Lansing had made an appearance and Jason had yet to deck him or even attempt to. Fortunately for Ric, Jason was too wrapped up in his fiancée. (Sam had somehow even coaxed him into dancing one number so far.) Ric had come with Alexis, who was now cancer-free. It seemed they too were on the road to - if not, reconciliation, then at least an understanding.   
  
Elizabeth watched the bride and groom dance and then turned to see Lucky standing at her side. “May I?” He asked, gallantly holding out his hand to her.  
  
Elizabeth nodded and smiled. “You may.”  
  
Lucky moved Elizabeth to the edge of the dance floor so he could have her all to himself. Elizabeth remembered the many times they used to dance together and felt a bout of tears film her eyes. They had come so far in the last year. Actually, in the last decade. So many stops, and starts, and disappointments and sadness. But there had been so much happiness, faith, and love too. They both had discussed what happened the summer before in great detail and knew they were in a better place now. They had been forced to mature very quickly but yet realized that nearly breaking each other apart had just been a stumbling block in the long road. When you were meant to be, as Lucky and Elizabeth were, you were simply meant to be.  
  
Lucky’s arms settled comfortably on Liz’s trim hips and she slid her slender arms up around his neck. She could feel the heat of him through her thin cotton dress and tingled a bit. Cameron was staying with her grandmother tonight so they could have a bit of time together. Elizabeth couldn’t wait. They had only made love twice since the past summer and she felt things were definitely about to change.   
  
They spent the rest of the night dancing and mingling with their friends and family and then decided to take a walk down on the docks under the stars. Lucky gripped his wife’s hand tightly as they moved together, almost in unison, and said, “Did you ever think Emily and Nikolas would make it?”  
  
“I had hoped so,” Elizabeth said. “Sometimes I wondered though if we …”  
  
“If we would make it?” Lucky guessed.   
  
Elizabeth nodded.   
  
“Yeah. Me too,” he agreed. “But I swear every night I thank god for you and that you chose me over anyone else, that you chose to save me and love me and honor me. God knows I didn’t always do all the same for you. I just feel-“  
  
Elizabeth lightly pressed a warm fingertip to his lips. “Lucky, I will always, always choose you. You’re my home. You’re my life. You’re my soulmate and I knew we belonged together almost from the second we met. Things have been hard, true. We’ve lost a lot of time being apart and then fighting but I will always come home to you because you are the one for me and always will be.”  
  
Lucky smiled, tears misting his eyes as the words “I choose you” hung once again resonant and heavy in the air, full of meaning. Then he leaned over and kissed her. “I love you, Elizabeth.”  
  
“I love you too, Lucky. Always and forever …”  
  
 **The End**


End file.
